CONVOY ORGANIZERS VOW TO STAY IN OTTAWA
POLICE PROBE ‘DESECRATION’ OF MONUMENTS, THREATS TO OFFICERS AND CITY WORKERS
Organizers of the Freedom Convoy protests are vowing to stay in Ottawa, despite police calls for a “safe exit” following a weekend of demonstrations that shut down the city’s core and sparked anger over the treatment of monuments.
“We are not leaving until all of you and all of your kids are free,” Tamara Lich, one of the organizers, told an enthusiastic crowd gathered on the lawn and streets around Parliament on Sunday. “We’re not leaving until you can open up your business. We’re not leaving until you can hug your best friend. We’re not leaving until you can go see your parents at a long-term care facility.” Attendance had started to wane in the second day of the protest, down from a raucous peak on Saturday, but still a heavy contingent of protesters and dozens of parked trucks continued to block long stretches of Wellington St., which runs right in front of the parliamentary precinct.
The convoy of trucks that descended on Ottawa began as part of the backlash against the federal government’s vaccine mandate for truckers crossing into Canada. But the scope of the protests has expanded as the convoy moved its way across the country this month, attracting demonstrators outside the trucking industry and taking aim more broadly at vaccines and public health rules.
Despite heavy police presence and public condemnations over racist symbols, the atmosphere on the ground was more like a carnival. People danced, and blew whistles and horns. “I’d rather live on my feet than die on my knees,” read one sign. A man introduced as “Coach Vlad” told the crowd they were all like acorns and could grow into oak trees with deep roots. “Who’s excited to be alive? Who’s excited to be a human? I love you so much, you have no idea, my goodness.”
ONE MEMBER OF OUR SHELTER COMMUNITY WAS ASSAULTED BY PROTESTERS. A SECURITY GUARD WENT TO HIS AID AND WAS ... CALLED RACIAL SLURS.
— SHEPHERDS OF GOOD HOPE
One protester from Nisku, Alta., in a pickup truck on Wellington, said he planned on staying in Ottawa, “until the job is done.”
No arrests had been reported as of Sunday morning but Ottawa Police said it was investigating the “desecration” of both the National War Memorial and a statue of Terry Fox, as well as “threatening/illegal/intimidating behaviour” to police officers and city workers. One truck flew a Confederate flag Saturday, and Nazi symbols and slogans were seen in the crowds.
On Saturday, a protester was filmed dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and by Sunday morning, reporters were posting photos of urine in the snow at the monument.
Politicians also condemned the treatment of a downtown statue of Terry Fox, which for a time held a protest sign, a hat and an upside-down Canadian flag — though by Sunday afternoon only a bouquet of flowers was sitting at the base.
A local homeless shelter, Shepherds of Good Hope, said protesters looking for meals were harassing its staff and volunteers on Saturday, to the point that the shelter had to comply as a way to “diffuse the conflict.”
“One member of our shelter community was assaulted by protesters,” the shelter said in a statement. “A security guard went to his aid and was treated and called racial slurs.”
By Sunday, Shepherds of Good Hope said it was flooded with donations.
As of Sunday afternoon, Ottawa Police was in contact with protest organizers to design an exit strategy for all protesters by the end of the day, according to a spokesperson.
Const. Amy Gagnon said police had already started “facilitating the departure” of people who wanted to leave the gridlocked downtown area.
“We’re planning a safe exit,” she said around 2 p.m. on Sunday. “We’re in continuous talks with them to actually implement their exit for today. So that’s where the discussion is at right now ... That is our current plan. And if the information changes, then we will be adjusting our plan accordingly.”
Convoy organizer and controversial right-wing figure Patrick King says truckers will not be leaving Ottawa this weekend and are planning on staying until all COVID-19 public health measures are eliminated and the Liberal Party is “resigned, gone and abolished.”
“We’re going to stay as long as it takes,” King said during an interview in a downtown Ottawa hotel, wearing a “conspiracy theorist” hat and smoking a cigarette in the lobby.
King burst out laughing when reporters told him Ottawa Police said they are working to get people and vehicles out of downtown by tonight.
“Fake news bud! We’re not going anywhere, and there are more coming,” King said.
“We got contingency plans in place for that,” he later said with a smirk when asked what would happen if police tried to clear them out. “You pushed the wrong group of people.”
He declined to detail what those plans were, but insisted his group was “non-violent.”
King is a former member of the yellow vest movement who has echoed racist conspiracy theories, such as the notion of “white genocide” theory made popular by white nationalists.
King tried to distance himself from protesters who were seen dancing and even urinating on the National War Memorial Saturday by claiming (without providing any proof) that they were “agitators and provocateurs” placed by the government to “make us look bad.”
King said protesters would be going to the memorial grounds to lay flowers on Sunday evening.